Nobody would agree to spend 20 years paying for a car that wouldn’t last more than 10.
But in a position paper released Tuesday morning, First Ward candidate and Kellogg Prof. Allan Drebin said the Evanston City Council’s plan to fund an $11.5 million renovation of park facilities with 20-year bonds would do just that.
“This is like saying, ‘The dinner didn’t cost anything; I put it on my credit card,'” Drebin says in the position paper. “What happens when the credit card bill comes and you’re hungry again?”
The council on Jan. 27 voted to provide the money over the next seven years to meet the immediate needs of the city’s soccer and baseball fields, basketball and tennis courts and parks.
Originally, the city’s Parks and Recreation Department asked the council to place a referendum on the April 3 ballot, asking residents to support a $35 million plan that would have included a new multipurpose recreation facility, parks and playing field improvements, and Robert Crown Center renovations.
While using the bonds allows the city to spend money without raising property taxes or significantly reducing other programs this year, Drebin said, the bonds will have a significant impact on future budgets. The city will only have to pay $150,000 in the project’s first year, but eventually could face $10 million in interest payments.
“Looking only at the first year’s payment in a long-term program financed by debt is irresponsible,” Drebin said. “It is like saying we can afford to purchase an expensive car because we have enough money for the down payment but fail to consider the impact of the monthly payments on our financial capabilities.”
Instead of using bonds or raising property taxes, Drebin said, the city should set up a system of fees for the use of park facilities. Those using the facilities would be paying for the renovations, and residents who could not afford to pay the fees could be covered by a scholarship system, he said.
Ald. Arthur Newman (1st), said he would oppose a fee system because city residents should be able to freely take advantage of all city services.
“I’m not going to have people in my ward who pay over $20,000 a year in property taxes pay to use a tennis court,” Newman said. “They’re already paying for the tennis courts.”
Drebin said deferring full payment on the renovations will place an unfair burden on future generations of Evanston residents. Residents will still be paying for the bonds long after the park facilities have again fallen into disrepair, he said.
But the council was told by city parks officials that many of the improvements will last almost 20 years with proper maintenance, Newman said.
“If we would have used a different financing mechanism, much of the renovations would have been deferred,” he said. “We’ve got 3,000 children playing baseball and soccer every year. The council’s priority was so children would play on good fields as soon as possible.”
Drebin released his position paper following a speech he gave Tuesday morning to about 50 Evanston Lighthouse Rotary Club members and guests. In his presentation, Drebin discussed what he said was City Council’s “less than friendly” treatment of Evanston businesses.
Although Drebin noted that he was speaking as a member of the community and not as a political candidate, his speech touched on a number of his campaign platforms, especially his views about the city’s treatment of businesses.
Focusing on a food and beverage tax – which was removed from the proposed 2001-02 budget during the council’s Monday night meeting – Drebin said he fears the council is unconcerned about forcing out one of Evanston’s last thriving industries, its restaurants. If the tax had been included in the budget, it would have increased sales taxes on food and beverages, including liquor, by 1 percent.
“The restaurant industry is struggling for survival,” Drebin said. “It’s not a very profitable industry and turnover is very high. If the restaurateurs find it is difficult to do business in Evanston, there’s a lot of other places they can go to do business.”
Drebin said the city’s attempts to further tax restaurants is “typical of what has been done with other businesses.” Car dealerships, manufacturing firms and major retailers have relocated to other cities as a result of prohibitive regulations and high taxes imposed on businesses, he said.
“We’ve got to find ways of increasing business instead of discouraging business,” Drebin said.
